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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A suicide attacker rammed a car laden with explosives into a vehicle carrying British civilians in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, wounding four of them, a U.S.-led coalition commander said.

The four were traveling in Kandahar city in a Landcruiser when the suicide bomber in a Toyota Corolla attacked, said Col. Steve Bowes, a Canadian commander with the coalition.

The four were civilians working on a customs project in Kandahar, a former stronghold of the Taliban, Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said. Two were serious condition and the other two were lightly injured, he added. He could not immediately provide any more details on the four.

Canadian troops based in the city cordoned off the area and rushed the injured to a hospital.

The bombing was the third suicide attack in Afghanistan in two weeks. The spate of attacks comes amid a major upsurge in violence across much of the country since March that has left more than 1,300 people dead.